With only 3 weeks to go till the start of Super Rugby 2012, the news has arrived that all referees in Super Rugby as well as the Southern Hemisphere test series now to be known as The Rugby Championship (Tri Nations expanded) have powers to put players ‘ON REPORT’ for suspected foul play, under a system whioch will be trialed in rugby union for the first time.

The Springboks will return to Soweto for the final home Test of 2012 when they take on newly-crowned world champions New Zealand in the final encounter of the new Rugby Championship which replaced the Tri-Nations.

The Springboks will kick-off the new format competition against the Pumas when the all-new “The Castle Rugby Championship” launches in 2012 – the replacement for the Tri-Nations series, SANZAR announced on Tuesday.

An agreement confirming Argentina’s participation was signed in Auckland recently by the SANZAR Joint Venture partners after several months of negotiations with the Unión Argentina de Rugby (UAR) and the International Rugby Board (IRB).